The essay begins by acknowledging the inevitability of another war, given the geopolitical tensions of the time, and Hemingway expresses deep cynicism about the reasons nations give for engaging in conflict. He dismisses romanticized notions of war as noble or cleansing, emphasizing instead its devastating realities: fear, dismemberment, trauma, and death. He writes with cutting irony about the idea that war can be good for society or youth, describing in blunt terms the suffering it inflicts on both soldiers and civilians.
Hemingway mocks the detachment of armchair generals and politicians who speak about war from positions of comfort and safety, contrasting their rhetoric with the visceral experience of those on the front lines. He also addresses the psychological scars that soldiers carry, noting that surviving a war often leaves one emotionally and spiritually damaged, haunted by memories and guilt.
Stylistically, the piece is marked by Hemingway’s characteristic restraint and clarity, but it also features a biting satirical edge. He underlines the absurdity of war's repetition, suggesting that humanity has learned little from past atrocities. Though the essay carries a serious tone, it is laced with sardonic wit and understated fury.
Ultimately, Notes on the Next War is a sobering indictment of the militarism and ideological blindness that lead societies into conflict. It is a plea—not overtly political but deeply human—for awareness of what war truly means. Rather than arguing against a specific war, Hemingway challenges the cultural mindset that makes war seem inevitable or acceptable. The essay stands as a testament to Hemingway’s belief that the costs of war far outweigh any of its supposed virtues.
“Now when a country does not pay its debts you cannot take its word on anything.”
Ernest Hemingway (verified)
“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”
— Ernest Hemingway (verified)“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.”
— Ernest Hemingway (verified)“And we in America should see that no man is ever given, no matter how gradually or how noble and excellent the man, the power to put this country into a war which is now being prepared and brought closer each day with all the premeditation of a long planned murder. For when you give power to an executive you do not know who will be filling that position when the time of crisis comes.”
— Ernest Hemingway (verified)“War is no longer made by simply analysed economic forces if it ever was. War is made or planned now by individual men, demagogues and dictators who play on the patriotism of their people to mislead them into a belief in the great fallacy of war when all their vaunted reforms have failed to satisfy the people they misrule.”
— Ernest Hemingway (verified)“No catalogue of horrors ever kept men from war. Before the war you always think that it’s not you that dies. But you will die, brother, if you go to it long enough.”
— Ernest Hemingway (verified)• Title: Notes on the Next War
• Author: Ernest Hemingway
• Type: Article
• Magazine: Esquire
• Publisher: Esquire Inc.
• Publication time: September 1, 1935
• Publication place: United States
• Link: https://classic.esquire.com/article/1935/9/1/notes-on-the-next-war